The implications of what happened at Cosatu House in the dramatic early hours of Saturday morning might reverberate through South African politics for years to come.
The union federation ex-communicated its largest affiliate Numsa, in a move that will surely have consequences for Zwelinzima Vavi, its veteran general secretary. Cosatu’s ascendant faction will now look to get rid of Vavi, or he will find his position untenable and step down. There is now also the possibility that unions aligned to Vavi and Numsa will voluntarily choose to disaffiliate, as a majoritarian grip tightens in the federation and its constitution is reduced to an inconvenient irrelevance.
In one respect it was neither shock nor surprise. The political rupture that ultimately led to Numsa’s ousting this weekend has been evident for at least the last two years. It has in fact been in the making since 2007, when Cosatu backed Jacob Zuma against Thabo Mbeki. Mbeki was unloved by the ANC’s left-leaning allies, and for good reason. But backing Zuma was a matter of convenience rather than conviction; he was effectively the only anti-Mbeki game in town, and seemed willing to offer anything in return to anyone who supported him.
As such Cosatu’s support should have been offered only in return for a well-defined, measurable minimum programme. Instead Cosatu offered another one of those blank cheques they’d been writing to the ANC since 1994. What policy expectations they had of a Zuma government were so broadly defined that they could be interpreted widely. Zuma and the ruling party could essentially give without conceding. What is genuinely surprising is the emergence of a whole layer of leadership willing to sacrifice the unity and independence of their federation at the altar of ANC interest.
In 1988, Joe Slovo defined a trade union thus: “A trade union is the prime mass organisation of the working class... it must attempt, in the first place, to unite... all workers (at whatever level of political consciousness) who understand the need to come together and defend and advance their conditions. It cannot demand more as a condition of membership.” One wonders what Slovo would make of loyalty to the ANC as a condition of membership.